Ashkenazi Hebrew

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Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish and various Slavic languages. It survives today as a separate religious dialect even alongside Modern Hebrew in Israel.

1 Features
2 Variants
3 Influence on modern Hebrew
4 Parallels
5 Literature

[edit] Features

As it is used parallel with Modern Hebrew, its phonological differences are clearly recognized:

א ʾālep̄ and ע ʿáyin are completely silent at all times in most forms of Ashkenazi Hebrew, where they are frequently both pronounced as a glottal stop in Ashkenazi-style modern Hebrew. (Compare Yisroeil (Lithuanian) or Yisruayl (Polish-Galician) vs. Yisra'el (Modern).) A special case is Dutch (and historically also Frankfurt a.M.) Hebrew, where ‘ayin is traditionally pronounced as a velar nasal (ŋ), probably under the influence of the local Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
ת ṯāw is pronounced /s/ in Ashkenazi Hebrew, unless there is a Dagesh in the ת, where it would be pronounced /t/. It is always pronounced /t/ in Modern Hebrew, (Compare Shabbos vs. Shabbat, or Es vs. Et.)
The vowel ṣērê (/e/) is pronounced [ej] (or [aj]) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it would be pronounced /e/ in Sephardi Hebrew; Modern Hebrew varies between the two pronunciations. (Compare Omein (Lithuanian) or Umayn (Polish-Galician) vs. Amen (Modern Hebrew).)
The vowel qāmeṣ gāḏôl (/a/) is pronounced /o/ (occasionally /u/) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it is /a/ in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Dovid (Lithuanian) or Duvid (Polish-Galician) vs. David.)
The vowel ḥôlam (/o/) is, depending on the subdialect, sometimes pronounced [au], [ou], [oi] or [ei] in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it is /o/ in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Moishe vs. Moshe.)
Unstressed qubbutz or shuruq occasionally becomes /i/ in Ashkenazi Hebrew, when in all other forms they are pronounced /u/ (Kíddish vs. kiddúsh.)
There is some confusion (in both directions) between final tzere (e) and hiriq (i) (Tishrei vs. Tishri; Sifri vs. Sifre.)
In earlier centuries the stress in Ashkenazi Hebrew usually fell on the penultimate, instead of the last syllable as in most other dialects. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was a campaign by Ashkenazi rabbis such as Jacob Emden and the Vilna Gaon to encourage final stress in accordance with the stress marks printed in the Bible. This was successful as concerned liturgical use such as reading from the Torah. However, the older stress pattern persists in the pronunciation of Hebrew words in Yiddish and in early modern poetry by Bialik and Tchernichovsky.

[edit] Variants

There are considerable differences between the Lithuanian, Polish (also known as Galician) and German pronunciations. These are most obvious in the treatment of ḥôlam: the German pronunciation is [au], the Polish pronunciation is [oi] and the Lithuanian pronunciation is [ei]. Other variants exist: for example in the United Kingdom, the original tradition was to use the German pronunciation, but over the years the sound of holam has tended to merge with the local pronunciation of long "o" as in "toe", and some communities have abandoned Ashkenazi Hebrew altogether in favour of the Israeli-Sephardi pronunciation. (Haredi communities in England usually use the Galician [oi]]).

[edit] Influence on modern Hebrew

Although Modern Hebrew was intended to be based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation, the language as spoken in Israel has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in the following respects:

the elimination of pharyngeal articulation in the letters het and ayin
the conversion of /r/ from an alveolar flap to a voiced uvular fricative or trill (see Guttural R)
the pronunciation of tzere as [eɪ] in some contexts (sifrey and teysha instead of Sephardic sifré and tésha' )
the elimination of vocal sheva (zman instead of Sephardic zĕman)
some of the letter names (yud and kuf instead of Sephardic yod and qof)
in popular speech, penultimate stress in proper names (Dvóra instead of Dĕvorá; Yehúda instead of Yehudá).

[edit] Parallels

Some of the differences between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Hebrew correspond to those between the Eastern and Western dialects of Syriac, e.g. Eastern Syriac Peshitta as against Western Syriac Peshito.

[edit] Literature

A. Z. Idelsohn, "Die gegenwärtige Aussprache des Hebräischen bei Juden und Samaritanern", in: Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 57 (N.F.: 21), 1913, p. 527-645 and 698-721.
Dovid Katz, "The Phonology of Ashkenazic," in: Lewis Glinert (ed.), Hebrew in Ashkenaz. A Language in Exile, Oxford-New York 1993, p. 46-87.
Werner Weinberg, Lexikon zum religiösen Wortschatz und Brauchtum der deutschen Juden, ed. by Walter Röll, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1994.